Date: Wed Jun 01 1994 00:00:34
From: Sheppard Gordon
Subj: Prosaic UFOs
UFO -------------------------------
Rock from space sparks UFO alert
05/30/94 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
BRIGHT, coloured lights in the sky over the south coast of England and the
English Channel yesterday morning prompted a flood of calls to the emergency
services from people who thought they were Unidentified Flying Objects.
But a single meteoroid rather than an armada of little green men was
responsible for the spectacle.
The piece of rock, about the size of a dustbin, burned up as it hit the
atmosphere, producing the display.
A Thames Coastguard spokesman said that at the height of the meteoroid storm
around 500 calls were received by coastguard stations from worried members of
the public.
"People were reporting coloured lights ranging from red and silver, to blue
and white," he said. "We also had reports from ships in the Channel and from
aircraft."
Astronomers said the chunk of space rock exploded as it plunged.
There have been no reports of any damage and any fragments that did not burn
up probably fell in the sea.
"Preliminary evidence suggests that the body travelled in a northerly
direction," said Mr Robin Scagell, of the Society for Popular Astronomy. "It
was many tens of miles above the Earth, so it was seen on both sides of the
North Sea."
Reports of a second UFO invasion at Harlow, in Essex, were also unfounded.
The dazzling lights turned out to be laser beams advertising a video shop in
the town.